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1、 The Age of Realism 现实主义文学时期现实主义文学时期2021/6/1612021/6/162n The year 1865 is considered as an important year in the shift from Romanticism （浪漫主义）to Realism （现实主义）in American literatureRealism had always existed in literature，but yet not until the late nineteenth century did realism dominate in America
2、n LiteratureThe American society after the Civil War (18611865) provided rich soil for the rise and development of Realism2021/6/163nThe Civil War was a turning point in American historyIt brought Americas great change from an agrarian （农业的）to an industrial societyThe principal issue of the war was
3、the conflict between industry and capitalist dermocracy （民主） in the North and agriculture and slavery in the SouthThe war ended with the overwhelming triumph of industrialism over agrarianism. The War brought many great changes to every aspect of American people.2021/6/164nThe Civil War destroyed th
4、e romantic concept of war. In the eyes of romanticists，wars were always glorious, grand，and noble encounters，something heroic. However, the amazing number of dead soldiers made it hard for people to have a noble vision of mankind any more. Therefore, Mark Twain once described man as “the only animal
5、 who indulged in one after another of the atrocity （凶恶，残暴） of war” This statement is a representative attitude of the post-Civil War writers in AmericaTo them，there is nothing romantic about war 2021/6/165nMoreover, the Civil War also changed American peoples views on values, morality and religionBe
6、fore the Civil War，the puritan ethic （清教的价值观）was the dominant morality in AmericaPuritans believed in the principles of evil and“salvation”. They considered perseverance （坚持不懈），stark （全然的）simplicity，and strenuous （艰苦，繁重的）good works as virtue，and regarded idleness，drunkenness and sexual immorality as
7、 depravity （堕落）. 2021/6/166nHowever，materialism had shaken the religious conviction of the Puritans. Stimulated by materialism，people were eager to pursue money and enjoyed the pleasures of lifeThey became dubious about human nature and Gods benevolence （仁慈）. The Civil War marked a deterioration （恶化
8、）of American moral values 2021/6/167nAnother important effect of the Civil War was American industrialization and urbanization （城市化） with its accompanying social diseasesWith the war, there was an explosive growth of business and industrynThis growth is symbolically shown in the rapid development of
9、 the railroadThe 35,000 miles of railroad track of 1865 increased to about 2,000,000 miles by the end of the century2021/6/168nThe improvements in industrial technology and transportation provided the incentive （刺激）and capacity for large-scale agriculture，manufacturing，and miningWith the development
10、 of industry，more and more factories appeared，and urbanization was required and facilitated by industrialization2021/6/169nNevertheless, industrialization and the urbanization were accompanied by the incalculable sufferings of the laboring peopleBeing attracted by higher pay, many farmers flocked （蜂
11、拥至）to the industrialized citiesTherefore, in the cities there were an oversupply of labor，which kept wages down and allowed the industrialists to offer workers adverse （恶劣）working conditions2021/6/1610nWealth was more than ever in the possession of the few - bankers and industrialists -with the poor
12、 poorer and the rich richerIt was the beginning of what Mark Twain called“The Gilded Age（镀金时代）”，an age of extremes（充满极端和对立的时代）of decline and progress，of poverty and dazzling wealth，of gloom and buoyant （持续上涨的） hope2021/6/1611nThe post-Civil War years were a period of great plunder （掠夺）and exploitati
13、on，of greedy materialism and political corruptionnAll the accompanying social diseases，especially slum （贫民窟）conditions，child labor，poverty，crime，and labor strikes became reflected in American literature.2021/6/1612n The above political，social and moral changes have influenced American writers in bot
14、h theme and technique After the Civil War，there appeared a new generation of writers who were dissatisfied with the optimistic ideas of the Romanticists and showed a great interest in the realities of life. 2021/6/1613nThese realist writers sought to portray American life as it really was. They insi
15、st that the ordinary and the local were as suitable for artistic portrayal as the magnificent and the remote. They tried their best to create a new kind of literature that was completely realistic 2021/6/1614n Realism first appeared in the United States in literature with local, an amalgam （混合物） of
16、romantic plots and realistic description of things immediately observable：the dialects，customs，sights，and sounds of reginal America. 2021/6/1615nWe can see this in the true-to-life descriptions of Bret Harte，William Dean Howells, Hamlin Garland，and Mark TwainBret Harte is the first American writer o
17、f local color to achieve wide popularityHe presents stories about western mining town involving colorful gamblers，outlaws，and scandalous （丑恶可耻的）women2021/6/1616nThereafter editors ever sensitive to public taste （大众的阅读兴趣）demanded such works，and writers including Harte, Harriet Beecher Stowe，and Mark
18、Twain provided regional stories and tales of the lives of Americas Westerners，Southerners，and Easterns2021/6/1617nLocal-color fictions reached its peak of popularity in the 1880s，but by the turn of the century it has begun to decline as its limited resorces were exhausted and as its most popular wri
19、ters grew tediously repetitious or turned to other literary modes.2021/6/1618nRealism is a direct contrast to RomanticismnAs a movement，American Realism started during the Civil War period and evolved in the second half of the 19th centurynAmerican Realism has realistically-flawed （有缺陷的）heroes inste
20、ad of the idealized characters in Romanticism2021/6/1619nThe writers of the Realism tried to represent life with their writingsTheir settings often include factories and slums，and their characters are ordinary people such as poor workers，businessmen，vagrants （流浪者），swindlers，（诈骗者）and even prostitutes
21、2021/6/1620nThe realists tend to be highly selective in their choice of material，focusing upon what seems real to middle-class readers。 nThe subjects of realistic fiction thus tend to be contemporary，ordinary，and middle-classn“Truthful” treatment of such subjects usually consists of a faithful imita
22、tion of surface details with the goal of creating the illusion of reality2021/6/1621nCreating such an illusion requires certain artistic choicesnCharacters have to be ordinary，average contemporary peoplenPlots have to be unobtrusive （尊重事实的，自然的）made up of the trivial incidents of everyday life，as“nat
23、ural”as possible in their development，capturing the wandering，indeterminate nature of ordinary experience rather than contriving （致力于）the tensions and climaxes of traditional plots2021/6/1622. certain artistic choices:nThe language has to be equally natural or at least give the impression of being s
24、o；not only are characters made to speak in the intonations of everyday life but the author himself or herself strives to make the language as invisible as possible，a neutral （不偏不倚的） reflector of impersonal （客观）reality2021/6/1623nIn conclusion，realism employs a straigilt forward presentation or matte
25、r-of-fact manner to express“the truthful treatment of material”n The characters created by realist writers must be life-like and recognized in real 1ife2021/6/1624nThe actions and speech of the life-like characters must be consistent with their personalities and positions in lifeAnd it focuses on th
26、e common lives of common people，real places and everyday things that are often ignored by the arts2021/6/1625nIn realistic fiction characters of all social classes are examined in depthThe characters are more complex，not just good or badnRealism emphasizes the function of the environment in shaping
27、the characters and has a tendency to explore the psychology of the characters2021/6/1626nRealism stresses objectivity and offers an objective view of human nature and human experiencenOpen endings （开放式结局）are often used in realistic writing to indicate that society is so complicated that readers cann
28、ot make one conclusion2021/6/1627uOf all the American realistic writers，the three dominant ones are William Dean Howells，Mark Twain，and Henry JamesAlthough Howells，Twain，and James all strive for realism，there are obvious differences among themu Thematically （从主题的角度分析），James focuses on the upper clas
29、s，and Howells is concerned more about the middle class，whereas Twain is interested in the lower class2021/6/1628uTechnically，Howells writes in the vein of genteel realism，while James pursues an“imaginative”treatment of reality (psychological realism 心理现实主义)Twains contribution to the development of r
30、ealism and to American literature as a whole is partly through his theories of localism （地方色彩主义）and partly through his use of colloquial style2021/6/1629nWilliam Dean Howells ( 18371920) is unquestionably the most influential American literary realist of the last quarter of the nineteenth centuryAs
31、a representative realistic writer，he does his best to portray the American middle class as faithfully as possiblenHowells defines realism as“nothing more and nothing less than truthful treatment of material”nIn addition to a good number of social novels, Howells has written eight books of criticism
32、and about 1,700 book reviews to spread his creed of realism2021/6/1630n Howells novels focus on the rising middle class and their way of livingHis first novels，Their Wedding Journey (1782)，A Chance Acquaintance (1873)，and A Foregone Conclusion (，1875) reflect skillful and convincing characterization
33、， a keen ear for colloquial dialogue， and a sense of morality-all of which are aspects of realistic fictionHis observation is satiric, and his subject matter concrete2021/6/1631nHowellsmost famous work is The Rise of Silas Lapham (塞拉斯拉帕姆的发迹，1885)It centers on the story of a self-made man who makes t
34、he true rise from his bankruptcy through ruining othersnHowells indictment （谴责）of the voracious （贪欲的）and greedy characteristics of capitalism is clearHe contrasts Silasrmoral righteousness to the prevalent （普遍的）immorality of the nineteenth-century business worldn Howellssubject matter is realistic：t
35、he middle-class family，the economic aspects of middle-class life，industry，and commerce2021/6/1632nHenry James is not a realist in the same way as Twain or HowellsHe is considered the founder of psychological realismnHenry James believes that reality lies in the impressions made by life on the specta
36、tor，and not in any facts of which the spectator is awareRealism is therefore merely the obligation that the artist assumes to represent life as he sees it，which may not be the same as life as it“really”is （他所谓的“真”，不是指客观世界，而是指作者真实的想法，所谓“抓住生活本身的色彩”，是指作者心中的“感觉能力”）2021/6/1633nBy making the conscious par
37、t of the artist the final measure of the experience，James shifts the ground of realistic art from the outer to the inner worldWhat he sees is，in so far as its function as the artist is considered，the only reality to which he owes any allegiance （忠诚）（他强调作家要 “汲取生活中那些最最幽微、最最朦胧的暗示”，小说就是要把“太空中的这些微妙信息转化成为
38、看得见的东西”。） 2021/6/1634nMark Twain represents localismHe prefers to represent social life through portraits of local places which he knows bestIndeed，he started off as a teller of tall tales and local coloristHe believed that a novelist must not generalize a nation nMark Twain writes，“The novelist lay
39、s before you the way and speech and life of a few people grouped in a certain place-his own place-and that is one bookIn time，he and his brethren will report to you the life and the people of the whole nation”2021/6/1635nMark Twain goes on to state that “a thousand able novels have been writtenThere
40、 you have the soul of the people，the life of the people，the speech of the people，and nowhere else can these be had” nHere he clearly defines the place and function of localism，and foresees the coming in sections of“the great American novel” to which he has done his best to contribute his share2021/6/1636 结束语结束语若有不当之处，请指正，谢谢！若有不当之处，请指正，谢谢！
